


under the sea

by cldstrf



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Atlantica (Kingdom Hearts), F/M, Post-Kingdom Hearts III
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:15:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21679624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cldstrf/pseuds/cldstrf
Summary: xion asks for a day in a new world.
Relationships: Roxas/Xion (Kingdom Hearts)
Kudos: 10





	under the sea

“A new world?”

“Yeah!” Xion grins, hands clapping together in front of herself. “I think you’ll like it a lot. I’ve been finding a lot of neat stuff from there.” 

Though they had the option to stay in Twilight Town, for the sake of being closer to their “original” home, they’d stayed on the Islands when everyone parted ways. There was a long, heartfelt farewell on Roxas’ part as his three closest friends left, along with Axel and Isa who chose to return to Radiant Garden. Xion promised Axel that they would visit, and  _ you better come see us too, you big slacker,  _ to which Isa let out a snort. 

The pair hugged Axel, and Xion even showed in good faith a smile to Isa. It would be hard to let the year of mistreatment go, but knowing he did so much to get the two of them their own bodies, she wanted to accept him as he was now.

  
They’d been living apart, however. Xion was readily adopted by the Mayor, living with Kairi as well as Namine. The three were practically inseparable, each finding comfort in what the other two offered. Roxas, though knowing he could never substitute Sora, stayed with his mother for the time being. It worked well. It gave him the proper parental guidance that Axel may have tried to give, but failed miserably at. Not that he held it against him much.

“Alright. Let’s go visit Riku, see if we can get the gummi ship for a while,” he says, and when that smile crosses her face, freckles popping and her tooth gap exposed, he feels something  _ thud _ in his chest.

It took no convincing to get Riku to lend them the ship. Roxas has never piloted it before, but Xion had no problem in taking command, seeming to be a natural at it. He’d asked at one point if she regularly used it, but explained that she just joins in on rides whenever Riku has “official business.”

“I asked Donald for some help on this one,” she later admits, looking sheepish and Roxas looks at her funny. “You’ll see what I mean. It’s not really a place we can just walk into.”

“Should I be concerned?” He asks, tone light to show his jest. Xion shakes her head, then points out in front of them to a world surrounded by water.

“Look! There it is!” 

“Whoa. You weren’t kidding.” He says, eyes darting towards her for just a second before he grows slightly worried. “I don’t know if I’m much of a swimmer, Xion. I like to be on the ground, typically.”

“Oh, it’ll be  _ fine. _ I know you like the wind in your hair, but this is fun too, trust me.”

They pass through the gate sheltering the world, and in a flash they appear in the water, ship nowhere to be seen. Must only be for the best, as Roxas quickly notices they’re underwater,  _ deep _ under by the looks of it. His hands fly up, crossing over his mouth and nose to reserve oxygen because if he’s stuck down here for too long, he would surely drown.

He looks around frantically, and hands spin him around until he’s facing Xion, a surprised expression taking over her features. 

“Roxas, it’s okay! I promise,” and when she speaks, she’s loud and clear. “You’ll breathe just fine.” She reaches up, takes his wrists and lowers his hands from his face to hold for the briefest moment before letting go. 

It takes him a few seconds to adjust, but he realizes that, actually, this was quite pleasant. The feeling of being weightless in the water was new; he never did float very well. He wasn’t sure what compelled him to choose the beach life. Maybe his own personal feelings of obligations, but that was neither here nor there.

What was on his mind now was… whatever it was that was dangling in front of Xion’s face. He reaches up, swats at the little bulb of light before Xion crinkles her nose up and grimaces.

“Hey!” She gives a huff, “that hurt.”

“Hurt?”

“Are you blind, dummy? It’s my esca!”

“Your what-ca?”

Xion rolls her eyes, takes a step back. Though it’s not much of a step as it is a glide, and she holds her arms out as though to present herself. He looks her up and down and it takes an unfortunately long moment for him to take in the fact that she no longer had legs, but fins. Her teeth were scarily sharp when she grins, and it barely processes when she says, “you really haven’t been paying attention in marine bio, have you? No wonder you’re such a bad student!”

“Hey, give me a break.”

“You seriously didn’t notice?”

He turns his attention down to himself, body similar to that of hers, but thinner, longer, and covered in stripes. He looks to his arms, notes the spines that protrudes from them, and his brows shoot upward.

“Guess I didn’t.”

“I didn’t take you for a lionfish,” she says casually, swims a lap around him and he uselessly rotates in place to follow her. “Riku was surprised by mine. Says the teeth don’t fit me.”

“You’re a… what. An anglerfish? I’d say that’s about right.”

  
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She asks, and he laughs until she takes his hands once more, swimming backwards to pull him forward. “Come on! Let’s go exploring. Riku never lets me wander around whenever he’s on business, the big dumb shark.”

“Shark? That fits well.”

“I thought so too.”

The areas they explore were peaceful-- almost too peaceful for it to seem right. Roxas stays on his guard despite all of the reassurances from Xion that it would be fine, because  _ in case you don’t remember, we used to do recon all the time, _ and who could count the amount of times they’d done that together and gotten jumped at the last second? Certainly not him.

“Hey, look!” She points out in front of them, and Roxas follows her guidance to an uphill slope until she dashes ahead of him, leaving him in the dust. He hurries behind her, and she circles around a boulder before her finger points upward. “We’re close to the surface. That’s where I keep finding everything.”

“So… you’re stealing things that people lose on the beach,” he says teasingly, nodding once. “Axel would be so proud.”

“Oh, hush.”

Already from this distance, he can see colorful shells ahead of them, and Xion tugs him towards them. “You’ve been using these to make your new trinkets with Kairi, right?” 

“Well, I already live at the beach I used to get them from. Why not get new ones for the people that live there as well?”

“You know, that’s fair.”

They spend hours searching and collecting, placing their gathered seashells in their inventory. At one point, Roxas accidentally disturbed a hermit crab when he picked up a shell, letting out a yelp that Xion readily laughed at. He shot her a pout, but she simply reached out to pinch his cheek with a half-hearted apology.

The one he finds that he likes the most is a large shell, spiralling in on itself from a deep purple to a subtle yellow. It makes him think of Xion, and he holds it to his chest as he peeks over his shoulder to her, watching her interact with a few mollusks near the coast. She looks like she was genuinely enjoying herself, and a corner of his mouth quirks upward, feeling his ears burning red when he notices and looks down. 

“Jeez,” he mutters to himself, and tucks the shell away for safekeeping.  _ Make it a surprise. _ She’ll love it. 

“Roxas!” She calls, and he whirls around in his spot towards her as she swims in his direction. “Thank you!” 

“W-what for?” He stutters out, unsure if she’d caught him, and thinking about how lousy that would be if his surprise was ruined before he could even do it.

“For coming here with me!” She gives him the softest smile-- that she can manage, with those teeth of hers-- and leans in, pressing her lips to his cheek. “I really appreciate it.”

“Yeah,” he says, dazed. “Of course--”

“Oh!” She gasps there, pointing out towards a curious looking yellow and blue fish that waves a fin at them. “I think he’s calling us over.”

“How can you tell--” he starts, but she’s already grabbing his hand again, pulling him along and he just sighs, shaking his head. “Alright, alright, I’m going.”


End file.
